Every book starts with an idea, a spark, a moment of inspiration, and travels through many hands until it ends its journey with a child.
This blog will track the journey of one book, written by James Mayhew, and illustrated by Jackie Morris.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

After a long silence.

Over the last few weeks I have been working on other things, though muddle headed and feeling like I am not getting much done. To see what has been achieved you need to look at my website.Meanwhile the artwork has all been sent back for me to rethink. The characters need to be better worked, and I need to finish all the roughs and establish a stronger feel for the book.At first my heart sank into my boots at having it all returned, but I know the weaknesses in it and need to address them.Meanwhile James had a digital camera for his birthday and sent through a photo of his studio for the blog. Like many writers and illustrators ( Roald Dahl, Philip Pullman, Dylan Thomas etc) he works in a shed in the bottom of his garden. Lovely in the summer, a bit cold in the winter.In the absence of any work for Starlight I thought I would put some of James's work on today so here is a rough for a reworking of the contents page for Stories From the Opera, published by Barefoot,

and a spread from Ella Bella to be published by Orchard.

Back to the drawing board for me as this week I try to finish a card for the MBF, do a spread for Singing to the Sun and find some children running around in my head and write an article for The Western Mail on my walking cats who are growing in fame.